Mushawarat
Deplores Prime Minister’s StatementOn Tactical Voting by Muslims
Advises him to Calmly Consider Reasons for Rejection of his Party by
Secular Forces
New Delhi, 11 February, 2002: Mr Syed Shahabuddin, President of the
All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat (AIMMM), has issued the following
Statement:

"The AIMMM deplores and fails to understand Prime Minister Atal
Behari Vajpayee’s uncalled for criticism of the voting pattern of the
Muslim community, except as an expression of his pique over the total
electoral rejection of his party by the Muslim community in successive
elections, since the BJP was born.

The AIMMM requests him respectfully to make an honest effort to
understand why this is so and why it is that his party has fielded only
one Muslim in UP against 403 seats; why its Manifesto has nothing to
offer to the Muslim community which is feeling frustrated and helpless
against the demonisation campaign launched against it and its
institutions in the name of internal security; why the majority of
people of the country reject his party’s claim of commitment to
Secularism and Social Justice; why, in fact, they regard the BJP as a
communal party; why the Muslims continue to regard its major adversaries
in UP, namely, SP, BSP and INC as secular, notwithstanding their
inadequate record; and why is it that their political objective today is
to do all they can so that the BJP does not return to power.

Assuming that as the top BJP leader Shri Vajpayee does not care to
undergo the embarrassing self-examination, the AIMMM would like to know
how tactical voting by the Muslims – massively and unitedly --
generally for the strongest candidate constituency-wise of any secular
party who can defeat the BJP – irrespective of his religion, can be
termed as anti-secular or anti-democratic or politically improper or
constitutionally questionable.

The AIMMM would also like Shri Vajpayee to note that ever since
independence, Muslims have generally voted for non-Muslim candidates of
one secular party or another and for different secular parties in
different States and that they have accepted non-Muslim national leaders
as their leaders and that today they see their security and dignity
threatened by the Sangh Parivar, whose political front the BJP is, and
their future in the survival of the secular order.

Since the BJP makes every effort to divide Muslim votes and thus win
even Muslim concentration seats with non-Muslim candidates, the AIMMM
has , on this occasion, recommended to the Muslim voters in about 75
Muslim concentration constituencies of UP to vote preferably for the
strongest Muslim candidates put by SP or Congress and the BSP with the
rider that since the BSP is regarded as a possible coalition partner of
the BJP, its candidates and leadership should pledge not to help
formation of a BJP government.

The AIMMM reminds Shri Vajpayee that in order to secure their due place
in polity, economy and society and to resist hostile majoritarian
pressure, all over the world, minorities – religious, ethnic or
linguistic, vote unitedly. But the AIMMM finds it amazing that ever
since its formation, the BJP itself has been engaged in consolidating
the Hindu vote bank of the majority community, by inciting anti-Muslim
sentiments, by injecting fear and distrust in the mind of the people and
by its political propaganda against the Muslim community holding it
responsible for what it calls ‘historic wrongs’.

The AIMMM hopes that Shri Vajpayee was not threatening the Muslims for
voting as they wish to and feels that if his purpose was to demoralise
the Muslims into dividing their votes in every Constituency, for the
benefit of the BJP, such a direct onslaught on democratic freedom would
not succeed."